Rebble Web Services comes online and replaces servers Pebble smartwatch

Fitbit has shut down the servers of former smartwatch maker Pebble. The community-developed alternative Rebble has put the Rebble Web Services online as a replacement, so that the online functionality of the smartwatches will continue to work for the time being.

Among other things, Rebble takes over the download store, its own list of downloaded watchfaces and apps and firmwares, writes the community. Users can support the developers with a three dollar per month subscription and in return get a weather service and the ability to dictate replies to messages on the Pebble Time watches.

Users can log out of Pebble and log in to Rebble with the push of a button in the Pebble app, although that requires users to have logged in to Rebble once in June to log in. Once they’ve done that, all apps, watchfaces, and settings will be preserved because Rebble migrated them.

Not everything works yet. For example, Timeline is still limited to local agenda items and weather information after payment, but other functions will come back later. Developers can also publish apps and watchfaces in the download store. The ability to respond to text messages on iOS will not return.

Fitbit shut down the Pebble servers after an earlier support extension. Fitbit acquired Pebble at the end of 2016 and immediately stopped selling the Pebble watches and developing new models. The company has released its first watches, Ionic and Versa, based on Pebble’s software.

Pebble Steel